In many medical applications, it is necessary (or at least desirable) to fasten one piece of tissue to another piece of tissue.
In the case of soft tissue, this fastening is traditionally accomplished by sewing the two pieces of tissue together using needle and suture.
Unfortunately, in certain situations it can be extremely difficult, or even impossible, to suture two pieces of tissue together. In many cases this is due to the natural constraints imposed by the patient's anatomical structure. By way of example, it can be extremely difficult to suture meniscal cartilage, which is located within the interior of the knee joint. Unfortunately, this presents a serious problem, inasmuch as many injuries involve tears to the meniscal cartilage, and suturing would provide an otherwise preferred manner of repair.
With this and other situations in mind, a variety of different surgical fastening systems have been developed to replace, or at least supplement, conventional suturing.
See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,716,058 (Tanner, Jr.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,532,926 (O'Halla); U.S. Pat. No. 4,548,202 (Duncan); U.S. Pat. No. 4,635,637 (Schreiber); U.S. Pat. No. 4,669,473 (Richards et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,873,976 (Schreiber); U.S. Pat. No. 4,884,572 (Bays et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,895,148 (Bays et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,924,865 (Bays et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,976,715 (Bays et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,053,047 (Yoon); and U.S. Pat. No. 5,059,206 (Winters); French Patent Publication No. 2,573,647 (Catier); and Japanese Patent Publication No. 58-160013.
See also, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,688,561 (Reese); U.S. Pat. No. 4,935,028 (Drews); U.S. Pat. No. 5,013,316 (Goble et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,129,906 (Ross et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,246,441 (Ross et al.); and U.S. Pat. No. 5,370,646 (Reese et al.).
Unfortunately, none of the prior art surgical fastening systems have proven to be entirely satisfactory, for a wide variety of different reasons. The inadequacy of prior art surgical fastening systems has proven to be particularly significant with respect to repairing tears in meniscal cartilage within the interior of the knee joint.